The Pilgrims of Rayne

by D. J. MacHale

  When we were about twenty yards from the ship, the Jakills took their weapons out of their teeth and put the ends in their mouths. They did it without a command or signal. Again, they had practiced this. I followed their lead. The wooden tube wasn’t the best snorkel in the world, but it allowed us to keep our heads low in the water. That was good, because I caught sight of two people walking on the deck of the ship. The guards. They didn’t see us or they’d probably have been pointing and shouting. Instead they looked to be walking casually and not all that alert. Why not? Nobody had ever attacked one of their ships before. Until tonight.

  Five of the swimmers broke off and made their way toward the bow of the ship. I shot a questioning look to Loque. He took the snorkel out of his mouth and whispered, “Five on this side, five near the bow on the far side. On my signal swim to the ship and wait. I’ll stay here to observe the guards. When the deck is clear, I’ll signal to toss the hooks on board. Climb up as quickly as you can. Once you get on board—”

  “Yeah, I know. Take out the guards.”

  “Watch,” he said, pointing to the ship. “They walk the same route. From the bow to the stern and back again. All night. Once they leave the bow, I’ll signal. You’ll have until they reach the stern and turn back to get yourself on board.”

  I looked to the ship to see exactly what Loque described. Two guards walked toward the bow. They weren’t in any hurry. Maybe they were bored. They were going to become unbored very soon. When they reached the bow and started back, Loque gave the command.

  “Go,” he whispered.

  Four of us swam quickly and quietly toward the ship. We reached it in no time and hovered there, treading water. The swell from the waves wasn’t too bad, so we were able to hang there without getting thrashed against the hull. Looking up, I guessed the deck was thirty feet above us. It wasn’t going to be an easy climb. I followed the others’ lead as they gripped their snorkels in their teeth to free their hands and unwrap the cords from around their waists. We spread apart along the hull so we wouldn’t catch one another with the hooks when we tossed them. Siry made it sound so easy, but as I bobbed there I wasn’t even sure I could throw the hook high enough to catch the deck. Why did I agree to this? What was I thinking?

  I kept my back to the hull and watched for Loque’s signal. He looked like a dark bubble bobbing on the surface. I hoped I’d be able to recognize his signal when it came. I don’t mind admitting that I was getting jittery. We must have floated there for five minutes, waiting. Waiting made me nervous.

  Finally I saw a quick movement near the dark bubble. Was that the signal? I looked to either side to see the Jakills throwing their hooks up to the ship. It was time. I grabbed my hook, did my best to wind up, and tossed it. It barely reached halfway up to the deck. It make a lame arc and fell right back toward me. I had to cover my head to avoid getting hit by the falling hook. Pathetic. I tried again. While kicking my legs to get as much of my body out of the water as possible, I held the cord in my left hand while dangling the hook with my right. Like a lasso, I wound up and let it fly. This time the hook hit the hull with a thunk and fell back into the water.

  A quick look showed me that all three of the other Jakills had gotten their hooks up top and were pulling themselves out of the water. I felt like an idiot, but c’mon! I hadn’t practiced this! I was about to try again when I felt the cord being pulled out of my hand. It was Loque. He took the cord, swam back a few feet from the hull, wound up, and let it sail toward the rail. The hook shot straight up and landed on the deck. With a quick tug, Loque imbedded it into the wood. He pulled hard on the cord, making sure it was secure, then handed it to me. I didn’t take time to thank him. We were behind schedule.

  The other Jakills were already halfway up the side of the ship. Was there still enough time to get up and onto the deck before the guards returned on their next lap? Waiting and wondering wouldn’t help things. I grabbed the cord, put my feet against the hull, and started to climb. I saw how the other Jakills did it, and copied them. With my feet against the side, I sort of walked up while moving hand over hand on the cord. The thin cord had several small knots along its length, so it was easy to grip. Climbing was tough at first, because the water created a suction, but once I muscled my way out of the water, it got easier. While gripping the wooden snorkel in my teeth like some soggy pirate, I inched up toward the deck.

  I soon realized I wouldn’t have trouble making the climb, and my mind shot ahead to the next challenge, which was all about me. I had to get rid of the guards on deck. How was I supposed to do that? I couldn’t just jump them and start wailing away with my wooden snorkel. That would be, like, barbaric. I’m telling you, fighting isn’t like what you see on TV. People don’t get dropped with one punch and conveniently fall asleep. Hitting somebody hurts. And it could hurt them, too. I couldn’t count on knocking them unconscious, so what was I supposed to do? As I climbed the last few feet to the edge of the railing, I decided that the best thing would be to get on deck, pull up the cord, and hope that I could take them on one at a time and tie them up with it. I figured there might even be someplace on board where I could lock them up. I didn’t know why Siry thought I could pull this off, because I wasn’t sure at all.

  The other Jakills clung to their cords, each hanging about a foot below deck level. I wondered why they didn’t climb up and over. Maybe they were waiting for me.

  They weren’t. The one nearest to me held out his hand to signal “Stop!” He pointed above. I could guess what he meant. The guards had returned. The extra time I had taken to climb up had cost us. I figured we’d wait until they got to the bow, turned, and walked past us again. Trouble was, we couldn’t see up to the deck, so there was no way to know when it was safe to go.

  Loque pulled himself up next to me. While still gripping the cord, he stuck out a finger to me as if to say, “Wait.” Cautiously he pulled himself up higher to peer over the rail. It was a risky move. For all he knew, the guards were right there. We watched him slowly rise and peek onto the ship. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I held my breath.

  I didn’t know how long we’d been hanging there, but my arms were getting tired. Tired arms weren’t good in a fight. Finally Loque put one hand on the deck and used the other one to motion for me, and only me, to climb up on deck. It was time. There was no chance to think or reconsider or plan out a strategy. The show was about to begin, and I was the first one to step on stage. Hand over hand I climbed the rest of the way and scrambled onto the ship. I hit the deck and rolled back toward the wooden rail, hoping to make myself inconspicuous.

  The deck was empty. No guards. No alarms. Nothing to alert anyone that a scabby commando was about to hijack their yellow ship. Though the ship was new, it looked to me like something out of olden times. The deck was made of long strips of wood. There was a wooden cabin structure near the bow that looked about the size of a large shed. Another larger cabin was to the rear. The ship had two heavy masts. I don’t know much about sailing ships, but I guess you’d call this thing a square-rigger, because it looked like the sails dropped down from horizontal poles that were positioned about halfway up the masts. A second, smaller horizontal pole was farther up each mast. There was a complicated tangle of lines everywhere. I hoped Siry was right when he said the Jakills knew how to sail this thing, because I sure didn’t.

  The only sounds came from the roar of the ocean and the groaning ship as it pulled against the ropes that held it to the pier. For a fleeting instant I felt as if I had stepped into another world, and I was on an ancient pirate ship. Stranger still, I was the pirate.

  Looking out from the deck, I saw the other nine ships at their piers. They were just as quiet. Just as empty. My confidence grew. I thought maybe the delay I had caused might have made this mission all the easier. It gave the guards the chance to do another lap back to the stern. If Siry and the others attacked with their silent blowguns, maybe all the guards were taken out at once, and my job was over. It wa
s suddenly looking like a piece of cake. I was so confident that I stood up, leaned over the rail, and looked down to the other Jakills.

  “All clear,” I whispered…an instant before I was jumped from behind.

  “Ahhhh!” screamed the guard as he grabbed me and threw me to the deck. Where had he come from? He must have heard us climbing aboard and ducked into the wooden cabin near the bow to lie in wait. It was the only place he could have come from so quickly. It didn’t matter. The surprise was over. The guy was going Tasmanian on me. The battle for the yellow ship had begun.

  I hit the deck on my back and saw I wasn’t being attacked by one guard, but two. The second guard was waiting for me, and I obliged him by landing right at his feet. He wound up to kick me. I rolled away. Both guards pounced. They were bigger than I was, but whatever advantage they had in muscle, they lacked in agility. And experience. I realized that right away. They both charged like a couple of bulls. I was able to bounce to my feet and dodge them easily.

  They didn’t give up. One guy charged again. I ducked him, but got speared by the second guard, who followed right behind. He drove me backward, slamming me into the wooden cabin. At the same time, he reached for his own wooden tube and wound up, ready to drive it into my ribs. He swung the weapon toward me. I blocked the downward thrust with my right arm, then whipped the same arm up to catch him across the cheek. He never saw it coming. I didn’t think these guys had ever been in a fight with somebody like me. I had learned from the best and practiced to fight against seasoned warriors. These two tropical guards may have been big and imposing, but they didn’t stand a chance. That was the good news.

  Bad news was they were about to get help.

  A loud horn sounded, tearing through the predawn quiet. Huge spotlights flashed on, bathing the ships in bright, white light. The surprise was really over. This was no longer about taking down a handful of guards. The entire security force that watched these ships would soon be headed our way.

  I caught a glimpse of the other swimmers pulling themselves up and over the railing near the bow. I thought they were coming to help me. I thought wrong. They ran to the cabin and jumped inside, headed for I didn’t know where. The others spread out along the pier side of the ship and quickly began to cast off the lines. They weren’t coming to my rescue; their job was to get this ship under way. The guards were my problem.

  It was going to be a race. The Jakills had to get the ship away from the pier and under way before the rest of the security force arrived. All I could do was keep the two guards who were already on the ship occupied, so the Jakills had a chance. I had sent the one guard reeling backward with my backhand punch. The second grabbed me from behind in a bear hug. I bent forward, lifted him up, pushed backward, and drove him into the mast. He barely grunted. I quickly crouched down and shot both my arms forward, which forced him to release his grip. I ducked and swept my leg backward, knocking him down.

  The first guard was on me an instant later. He swung. I ducked. He swung again. I dodged. He was getting tired. I had a chance to put this guy away and took it. He swung one last time. I ducked. He overrotated. Perfect. I drilled him in the back of the head with the bottom of my foot. A perfect side kick. He went reeling forward toward the railing. He was stumbling out of control. I could have stopped him. I didn’t. Instead, I gave him one last push from behind, and he went tumbling over the side and into the water.

  One down. Literally.

  I felt the ship rumble. Whatever engines it had were growling to life. I didn’t even know this ship had engines. But it did, and the Jakills were firing them up.

  Shouting came from somewhere on the shore. A few hundred yards away I saw a group of security thugs running along the rocks toward the pier. If they got to us before we shoved off, we’d be done.

  The second guard was on me. He’d learned from his mistakes. He didn’t charge or throw himself on me. He stood a few yards away, knees bent, fists up, ready to fight. This was trouble. If he was going to come at me with more control, he’d do much better, and there was every possibility I’d be joining his friend in the water. I looked for an advantage, and saw one. My back was to the rail. The Jakill’s hooks were still dug into the wooden railing. I turned my back to the guard. I don’t think he knew what to make of that, because he hesitated. That was all I needed. I grabbed one of the cords. When I sensed the guard charge, I spun around and lashed it at him like a whip. The wiry cord slashed across the guard’s arm. It must have stung, because he yelped in pain. It was probably just as much surprise as pain though. He probably had no idea what hit him. I took the moment to yank the hook out of the wood.

  I had a new weapon: a cord with a sharp, nasty three-pronged hook. With the cord in my left hand and the hook dangling from my right, I swung it back and forth, trying to intimidate the guy. His eyes went wide. He didn’t want to get impaled. That wouldn’t last long. The hook was only valuable as a threat. If he charged, what would I do? Swing it at him? The worst that would happen is it would cut him a little. All I could hope was that he wouldn’t realize what a lame weapon this really was. I needed time. The longer I kept him away, the more time the Jakills had to get this boat the hell away from the pier.

  I felt the ship lurch. We were moving! Would it be fast enough? My heart leaped. So did the guard. He realized what was happening and knew he had to make his move. He lunged at me. I reared back to throw the hook. Suddenly the guard stopped short. It was as if he froze in his tracks. His mouth hung open. What the heck? A second later he fell to his knees and tumbled face-first onto the deck with a sickening thud. Ouch. He hit and didn’t move. I looked up to see that standing behind him was Siry, holding his wooden blowgun to his lips. Sticking out of the back of the guard was a small, green dart.

  “Pretty exciting, isn’t it?” Siry said, pleased with himself. He was actually having fun. He and the Jakills went looking for adventure. They had found it already.

  “Are we going to make it?” I asked.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” he said, sticking his blowgun into his belt. “Help me.”

  He bent down to pick up the comatose guard. I grabbed his shoulders while Siry grabbed his legs. We struggled to carry him over to the pier side of the ship.

  “Lower him over,” Siry commanded.

  He dropped the guy’s legs over the side and I stretched out as far as I could before letting him go. The sleeping guard fell to the pier and crumpled like a rag doll.

  “I hope we didn’t hurt him,” I said.

  “Better than letting him drown,” Siry answered.

  Rat boy ran up to us and pointed toward shore. “Here they come!” he shouted.

  Sure enough, the gang of security thugs had turned onto the pier and were sprinting toward us.

  “Speed would be good,” I said to Siry.

  Siry ran for the ship’s wheel. It was an enormous, round wooden wheel that was positioned in front of the rear mast.

  “Throttle up!” he screamed.

  The ship’s engines hummed. I heard it, and felt it in my feet. Slowly, we moved away from the pier. The security thugs screamed and sprinted toward us. It was going to be close. The ship was moving, but painfully slowly. We were seconds from getting away.

  “Push off!” Siry commanded.

  I looked over the pier side rail to see several sets of hands reach out from portholes just above the water’s surface. They each had long, wooden poles that they used to push the ship away from the pier. We didn’t need to get far away, just a little farther than jumping distance from the pier. It struck me that Siry had thought of everything, even down to having the Jakills stationed down below to make the final push off.

  The security guards sprinted along the pier to the stern of the ship, too late. One made a desperate leap. His hand barely brushed the railing as he tumbled into the water.

  We were away. The engines powered up, and in no time we were moving quickly away from the pier and out of harm’s way. I couldn’t believe it. W
e’d made it! This group of kids had actually hijacked a ship. I had gotten so caught up in the adventure that I didn’t stop to think of how impossible a task it was. Maybe that was a good thing, because as it turned out, it wasn’t impossible at all. I looked back to the pier to see the dozen or so security guards standing there, helpless, watching one of their beautiful new ships motoring away.

  All the Jakills ran on deck, cheering and hugging. I didn’t know how long they had been planning this, but it was definitely a moment of victory.

  Loque came up to me and shook my hand.

  “You had me worried for a minute,” he said.

  “Not half as worried as I was,” I replied.

  “I’m glad you’re aboard, Pendragon,” he said sincerely.

  We were on our way, but to where? Siry guided the ship along the coast, headed toward the mouth of the bay that led to the village of Rayne. Far in the distance, over the ocean, the sun was rising. It was a beautiful sight. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Ibara. It was an awesome moment.

  That didn’t last long.

  Boom! Without thinking, I dropped to the deck. The Jakills didn’t. A second later something whistled over our heads. The Jakills stood there, confused.

  “Get down!” I screamed. “They’re firing at us!”

  “‘Firing’? What do you mean?” Siry cried. “What was that sound?”